Google Kills &num=100 Parameter: Why Your SEO Tools Are Breaking and Your Data Is Wrong

Google has disabled the &num=100 search parameter, a move that is not a bug but a deliberate strike against SERP scraping. This change is causing SEO rank trackers to break or face a 10x operational cost increase. It also explains the sudden desktop impressions drop in Search Console, which is the removal of bot-driven data inflation. SEO professionals must immediately audit their tools and re-baseline their data, as this signals a new, more expensive era for SERP analysis.

Are your SEO rank trackers failing? Have you logged into Google Search Console and seen a sudden, inexplicable desktop impressions drop? You are not alone.

This is not a temporary glitch. This is a deliberate Google search parameter change.

Google has effectively killed the &num=100 parameter. This simple string, long used by SEOs to pull 100 results at once, is gone.

This move fundamentally alters the economics of Google SERP scraping. It is a defensive action by Google, and the entire SEO industry is the collateral damage. This article explains exactly what happened, why your SEO tool data is suddenly unreliable, and what you must do about it right now.

The Google &num=100 Parameter: What Just Happened?

For more than a decade, the &num=100 parameter was a simple, effective tool. SEOs, developers, and marketing tools could append &num=100 to a Google search query URL.

Google would then return a single page containing 100 search results. This was the backbone of all large-scale SEO rank tracking.

A tool could check a keyword’s position, find competitors, and analyze the SERP landscape with a single, efficient request. It was predictable. It was cost-effective.

Now, it is dead.

Sending the &num=100 parameter to Google no longer works. Google simply ignores it and returns a standard page with 10 results, just as it would for any normal user.

This change was not announced. It was implemented quietly, but its impact is massive. It forces a complete rewrite of the rules for data collection.

The 10x Cost: Why Your SEO Tools Are Failing

What does this Google search parameter change mean for your software? Why are your rank-tracking dashboards showing errors or incomplete data?

The answer is simple economics. To check a keyword’s ranking down to position 100, a tool used to make one request.

Today, that same tool must make ten separate requests.

The tool must load page 1 for results 1-10. Then it must make a new request for page 2 (results 11-20). Then page 3, and so on, all the way to page 10.

This is a 10x increase in the number of requests. It is a 10x increase in the bandwidth used. It is a 10x increase in proxy costs.

It is also a 10x greater chance of being detected and blocked by Google’s anti-bot systems.

Your SEO rank tracking tools are breaking because their entire infrastructure just became ten times more expensive and ten times more complex overnight.

Tool providers are in a panic. They must re-engineer their scraping methods. They must absorb a massive, sudden cost increase.

Those costs will be passed on to you, the end user. The era of cheap, daily rank tracking for thousands of keywords is over.

Solving the Mystery: The Sudden Desktop Impressions Drop

This change also solves another pressing mystery: the widespread desktop impressions drop in Google Search Console.

Many small business owners and SEOs saw their desktop impression data fall off a cliff. The natural fear is that their human audience, their actual customers, has vanished.

This is extremely unlikely. What really happened is a sudden correction to a long-standing data inflation problem.

For years, your SEO tool data collection was not invisible. All those rank trackers—yours, your competitors’, the entire industry’s—were making millions of requests.

Google was counting many of these bot-driven scrapes as “impressions” in your Search Console reports. Your data was inflated.

You were not just seeing impressions from humans. You were seeing impressions from the very tools you were using to measure those impressions.

Now, with the Google &num=100 parameter gone, scraping is 10x harder. Many scraping operations have stopped, paused, or been dramatically reduced.

The “drop” you see is not a loss of customers. It is the removal of bot impressions from your data.

You are now seeing a more accurate, and lower, baseline. Your historical data was wrong, and this change has just exposed it.

This Is Not a Bug. This Is a Strategic War on Scraping.

Some in the SEO community have hoped this is a temporary test. They argue it might be a minor bug that Google will soon fix.

This line of thinking is wrong. This is not a bug.

A bug is random, inconsistent, or affects a small subset of users. This change is uniform, global, and precise in its effect. It strikes directly at the heart of high-volume Google SERP scraping.

Why would Google do this now? The answer is the rise of Generative AI.

AI companies have an insatiable, limitless demand for training data. They are scraping the entire open internet, and Google’s SERPs are a primary target.

Google is defending its property. It is fighting back against this massive, automated data harvesting.

By killing the Google &num=100 parameter, Google erects a new, financial wall. It makes it 10 times more expensive for anyone to scrape its results at scale.

SEO tools are not the primary target. We are simply the collateral damage. Google’s fight is with large-scale data miners, and SEO rank tracking got caught in the crossfire.

This is a permanent, strategic policy change. The 10x cost barrier is the new normal.

Your New Mandate: Audit, Re-Baseline, and Prepare

This Google search parameter change is not something to “wait out.” It requires immediate action from every SEO professional, marketing manager, and business owner.

This is your new mandate.

First, you must audit your tools. Contact your SEO rank tracking provider immediately. Ask them how they are handling this change. Are your reports accurate? Are they absorbing the 10x cost, or will your subscription price increase? You need answers now.

Second, you must re-baseline all your desktop metrics. That desktop impressions drop is your new, more accurate reality. Your past data was inflated. You must accept this and re-educate your clients, your boss, and your team. Your year-over-year reports are now invalid.

Third, you must prepare for a more expensive future. Access to SEO tool data and raw SERP data will get more restricted. It will get more expensive. The days of cheap, bulk data are finished.

You must become more strategic about what you track, how often you track it, and how much you are willing to pay for that information. Welcome to the new reality of SEO.